Low temperature storage alleviates internal browning of 'Comte de Paris' winter pineapple fruit by reducing phospholipid degradation, phosphatidic acid accumulation and membrane lipid peroxidation processes.

To uncover the mechanism underlying membrane lipid metabolism of low temperature induced internal browning tolerance in pineapple, membrane phospholipid alterations of harvested 'Comte de Paris' winter pineapple fruit stored at either 10 °C or 25 °C was investigated. Fruit stored at 10 °C developed low levels of internal browning as compared to fruit stored at 25 °C and was associated with high contents of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidylethanolamine, and low levels of phosphatidic acid. Storage at 10 °C down-regulated the expression levels of phospholipase As. Fruit stored at 10 °C also exhibited high ratio of unsaturated fatty acid to saturated fatty acid and index of unsaturated fatty acid level. These findings suggest that maintenance phospholipid abundance, reduction in phosphatidic acid accumulation and membrane lipid peroxidation may have contributed to the enhanced internal browning tolerance in 'Comte de Paris' winter pineapple fruit at low temperature storage.